• Jan. 4, 2007
Good bye

Since I don't post here often, I am just going to post at my main blog:  www.xanga.com/toraanne Come visit me there!

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• Oct. 14, 2006
Our Week

Last Monday we took off for Columbus day, although I did cover him briefly and pass out find a words and coloring sheets to not only my children but the three extra I had around there as well.

Tuesday we started back in to school with Alex asking can we please take the day off! 

Wednesday we had co-op.  Was a fun co-op at least for me!

Thursday was another day of school and it was HORRIBLE!!  I had the boys, at one point, walking to our mailbox and back 3x.  Finally about 4p I decided enough of the attitudes and we went on a nature walk.

We came home with a box turtle, named Spook.  We will keep him until after co-op and then we will release him back into the wild.  They looked up box turtles online and determined what he should eat and about how old he is.  Or she?

Friday was a day off because we spent a good part of the day with Janice Van Cleave.  It was a life-lesson learning type of day.  We had a glorious time!  If you don't have any Janice Van Cleave books, then I encourage you to get some!  She is really a neat woman with great books to boot!

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• Oct. 6, 2006
Getting Adjusted

We are really getting adjusted to our load of school work, however the house work is all together different.

Yesterday Alex woke up and asked if we could skip school today.  I laughed.  He wanted to cry, but carried on.  

Alex really does not like writing.  He is wanting to do all his Grammer orally.  Occasionally I don't mind, but for the most part he has to write.  I haven't told him yet, it will soon get worse! 

The twins are trying to breeze through the McGuffey's speller.  Drake was very upset yesterday at the number of words he missed.  He doesn't get the fact he has to really study! Alex figured this out last week and is taking smaller spelling tests.

Jacob is finally starting to really read.  The light bulb has come on and he is getting it.  Something tells me reading may always be a struggle for him, but he is finally getting it.

School is taking us about 4 to 5 hours.  Depends on the tatrums or tears! 

The children each do their individual subjects and then together we do history, science, bible, sign language and reading a loud. 

Currently we are reading "Om-kas-Toe"  About a Blackfeet Indian before the horses arrived.  I am not enjoying the book too much, but really seem to be.  I am also reading one story a day from "Jesus Freaks" about Christian Martyrs.  They are really enjoying the book.  I pray they get something out of it. 

Now my house......let's not go there.  I felt victorious for having cleaned the fridge yesterday.  This upcoming week I will be adding schedules to the mix, including housekeeping.  But shhhh....don't tell them yet!

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• Oct. 3, 2006
The new week

Well I would like to change the font color but the blasted computer won't let me! 

We have started this week off with a bang.  The schedule is still slowly coming together, but we are getting it, slowly but surely. 

This will be our first truly full week.  Yesterday we did not do our "together" subjects, but today we will. 

Tonight we have a parade for Jacob to be in. 

Last night the children took a food class with 4H. 

We are not going to art class today as I simply don't have the time, with Jacob's parade this afternoon.  Thankfully I am not stressed over missing it.

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• Sep. 30, 2006
A busy school week!

We have finally had a full week of school.  And let me say, "whhheeeewww...."  We were busy! 

Monday we took off for vacation recovery (Alex and Jacob had just returned from Florida)

Tuesday we hit the books hard and heavy.

Wednesday we had co-op

Thursday--another hard hitting book day

Friday--and another.

At one point I was giving Jacob an oral spelling test while Drake was taking a written spelling test.  Man O Man!

We read "A Lion to Guard Us" this week.  A good book about three young children traveling to the new world.  They enjoyed the book--which is why it was quickly read this week! 

Next week will be just as long and busy.  They  have a 4H meeting on Monday plus co-op on Wed.  Today, they are performing at the Cultural Arts Festival in Waco with others from the Home School Co-Op.

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• Sep. 27, 2006
School is back in!!!

I have all my little "chicks" back under one roof.  It is so nice to have them here! I am thankful for them to have been given the opportunity to visit another state, but it is much better having all my little chicks here.

We did not have school on Monday as that was a recovery day. 

Tuesday we hit the full schedule.  We covered everything but science.  Even got some sign language in.  I ended up being hoarse by the end of the day because I had read and talked so much. 

Today we had co-op.  It was community service day so we visited a nursing home and the children had drama afterwards.

Tomorrow we go back to full schedule. 

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• Sep. 15, 2006
Just a few pics!

School has been going well.  I took off Wed and Thursday for sick days.  I took off today because we are in town for some shopping.  Next week is already shot, because two of the four children are leaving for Florida! 

I have two pics of Jacob and one of Lynsie I wanted to share though!

Jacob getting ready for his week long camp.  Isn't he a cutie???

Here is Jacob ready to meet the bus.  Notice how happy he looks! LOL  He was probably about as terrified of leaving as we were of letting him go!

Here is Lynsie Loo---I love this pic of her!!  She looks so sweet and innocent!!  And happy!!  She is really such a joy to us!!

Oh and I am gonna add one more of my sweetie!!

It is rare to get a pic of him smiling!  He is at my computer desk--if you want to know where I blog from!

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• Sep. 11, 2006
No blog on Sept. 12, 2006

A friend of mine is going in on Tuesday Sept 12 to give birth to a baby that will only live at most a couple of hours.  Of course I believe God can and does perform miracles, so I simply ask His will in this family.  But in honor of her, I will take a day of blogging.  You can visit her blog at:  http://www.susangodfrey.blogspot.com/

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• Sep. 11, 2006
Week 2 Day 1

Well today we added in Spelling, math and cursive.  I was begged, please no language arts until next week.  So I am nice and will not add that and sign language until next week.

Today so far we have done:

Math

Spelling---Twins already tested over lesson one.  Lynsie took half of lesson one test and Jacob as well, however Jacob has some work he needs to do.  I will make a worksheet for him tomorrow. 

Cursive---worksheets.  They did very well.

We still need to read our book and complete our bible lesson.  I will read here in a bit and take the bible lesson to theater so the children will not be bored! Tee hee what a nice mom I am!!

Over all the day went well!

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• Sep. 10, 2006
Week #2 here we come!!

Well I am ready for week #2 to begin.  Tomorrow we are adding spelling and grammer and math and tears and wailing and crying and carrying on!  LOL  Did I mention my guys do not like these subjects.  Oh and cursive, we are adding cursive and we may add in sign language, but I may wait a week to add that in and we shall see how it goes---my adding in all those subjects.  We may only add spelling and math. 

This past weekend I picked up McGuffey's Eclectic Primer for Jacob and McGuffey's Eclectic Spelling Book for them all.  Jacob is a struggling reader and I am praying this book will boost his confidence!  I will make him some flash cards and see how he does.  He has been introduced with phonics but he has a difficult time remembering the rules.  He seems to do better with whole words. 

Both of the books I bought are on line for free, however I do better having a hard copy in my hands.

 http://oldfashionededucation.com/  Visit there for a great FREE online curriculum.  I use her site more for guidelines and ideas.  I don't do well with reading online---hence the books I bought. 

I will post how our day goes tomorrow!  I can't wait!

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• Sep. 9, 2006
School on Friday

Well our school on Friday consisted of a trip to the Vet's and doing some work with my dad.  Lynsie headed in with her Nana and worked with her.  So I guess we could label this day as "Practical application"

Monday, puts us back into school mode again! 

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• Sep. 7, 2006
Another great day!

Well it was another great day of school.  Well all accept for the whinning and attitudes.  Jacob had a melt down over reading.  I told him to stop being so dramatic and to try.  He just wasn't in the mood for school and thought the drama would help him out---it didn't!

We read the bible only for a little bit.  I hadn't realized Noah comes up so quickly!  I have a hands on project for Noah. 

But for fun, I was trying to explain to the children why Lamech had named his son, Noah...."to comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord has cursed."  I tried to explain to them because of how long they were living, the garden of Eden was not some long ago past historical event.  It was very revelent to them.  So we did the math:

Here is the results:

Adam was 130 when he had Seth

Seth was 105 when he had Enosh (Adam was 235)

Enosh was 90 when he had Cainan (Adam was 325)

Cainan was 70 when he had Mahalaleel (Adam was 395)

Mahalaleel was 65 when he had Jared (Adam was 460)

Jared was 162 when he had Enoch (Adam was 622)

Enoch was 65 when he had Methuselah (Adam was 687)

Mathuselah was 187 when he had Lamech (Adam was 874)

Lamech was 182 when he had Noah.  (Adam would have died when Lamech was 56yrs old)

So as you can see, Noah barely missed knowing Adam---by just 126yrs.  We may go back and see who was living (if any) when the floods came. 

We read two chapters from "The Corn Grows Ripe"  We made a chart comparing their family to ours---we will work on this daily and so far the charts look like this:

Tigre's Family---only has four people in his home, family worships a different god(s) Tigre is almost old enough to have a gun of his own, he sleeps in a hammock and "they have cool names"

The Conner family---We have 6 people in our family, we worship the one true God, Children are not allowed to shoot guns (much to my son's dismays!) We sleep in beds and we also have "cool names."

For science to go hand and hand with our book we started this lesson:  http://www.michigan.gov/hal/0,1607,7-160-17451_18670_18793-53171--,00.html  Today we planted our corn in the wet paper towels and wrote down what we thought would happen to the corn.

Alex said, "I think it will not grow." 

Drake said, "it won't grow"

Lynsie said, "I put my corn in the cup.  I think it will not grow."

Jacob said, "A cat will knock it over"

We are to observe the corn each week and then record what happens. 

Next week we will add in Math, Grammer and spelling.  There will be nashing of teeth and wailing (sounds like biblical hell doesn't it??? LOL)  Thankfully no fires!

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• Sep. 6, 2006
First day of Co-Op

Well I will be honest, I did not think I would enjoy co-op.  In the past we have not participated for various reasons.  Money was a factor for one co-op combined with how young the children were and for the other co-op we dropped out of because of the irresponsiblity.  Now we have joined a third co-op.  I feel brave in saying, this ultra-conservative walks with Christ woman has joined a secular group. 

I joined for several reasons.  1) The first two co-ops had cliche issues.  And the first group who said they did not mind an interracial marriage really put up invisible walls when they saw my big, black husband.  I simply did not fit there.  2) Group number two just bugged me.  Unorganized, always running behind schedule etc and so on.  3) I like diversity.  Yep there I said it----I like being around all sorts of people.  This group is made up of Christians, Pagans, etc....  4) I am thinking since I am weird--this group may be just for me!! Kidding of course!  The last reason 5) The children loved playing with those children. 

I feel certain when (and it will) the time comes, they will stand up for their beliefs.  Jacob (9yrs) had a discussion today with a girl about Christ.  What was said, I am not sure as it was mentioned in crossing and I was unable to probe the conversation further.  (I was in the middle of another conversation)  Children not only have the ability to see past color and race etc.. they can see past religious beliefs.  I am amazed how none of those things which bother us adults matter to a child.  I wish we as adults could do better.  My guys simply say "oh look a child, let's play"  They find the common interest and go with it. 

Co-op only last 2hrs.  A perfect way to break me into socializing!! LOL  The children I am not worried about---its me!  We had our picnic lunch afterwards---I brough spaghetti.  You can read about why and how over at www.homesteadblogger.com/toraanne

The first hour was PE and the second hour was Camp Fire Drama.  My twins (who are some of the oldest) did NOT want to participate, but they were roped in and I think they may have enjoyed themselves. 

In the car on the way I read from the "Jesus Freaks" book.  I would have started in on bible--but they were falling asleep!! 

In the car while we were doing a few things, I read chapters one and two from our book, "The Corn Grows Ripe." 

We did not get to the bible, and I hang my head in shame over that.  It should have been done first!  We will however cover that tomorrow!! 

We also made our weekly trip to the library.  I checked out books on the Mayans and Aztecs and picked up a book I had requested.  I look forward to working with these books. 

Okay, it is late, headed to bed now---another day of school tomorrow!!

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• Sep. 5, 2006
Our Official First day of School

We had our first day today!  I managed to get by with 3hrs of sleep, but here at 10:30pm I am falling fast! 

• I personally started my day off with prayer (help me Lord stay awake) and bible reading.
• I fixed oatmeal for breakfast---no one ate it!
• We took turns reading from the bible (started with Genesis) and we made matchbook books about Cain and Able.  The little book idea came from Dinah Zike's book, "Big Book of Books and Activities Religious Supplement" I made the copies onto card stock.  A really neat book----which I borrowed from Janice Van Cleave! Thanks my friend!
• I read the introduction to the book, "The Corn Grows Ripe" I would have read more, but I was falling asleep as it was.  The children did NOT like the fact they had a different religion, but it covered some of the same ideas as our own.  We will make a pros and cons chart on Thursday.
• Then we headed to art classes.  They are really enjoy those classes.  Mrs. Van Cleave gave the children some art supplies --they loved them!!  Now they are all in various parts of the house painting! 
• The children had a great time playing outside today, thanks in part to the fact we have told them "NO COMPUTER"  What meanies we are !!

Well I think I am going to try and rest a bit before Freddie gets home--I will then have to be up to wash his clothes!

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• Sep. 5, 2006
School Starts today

School starts today and it is 2:35am and I am not asleep.  Six-thirty will come early.

I have pulled out my Sonlight catalog.  And as much as I would love to be able to order the package I can not, so I am using their reading list and pulling together my own activities to go with the books.  Thankfully our library is very good at inter-library loan. 

The gentleman at the library told my sweetie, the guy who does inter-library loan loves a challenge and has really been loving me, as I keep asking for more strange and hard to find books!

We are using the reading list from Sonlight Core 3, which is the introduction to American history.  I am trying to start with the Aztecs and Mayan culture as well as explorers to "the new world."  I want my children to know about the people who were here before "we" were. 

As I wait for my books to arrive, I pulled, "The Corn Grows Ripe," off of our bookshelf.  I will start with it.  I was searching for some lesson plans to go with it and ran across these links which I thought were neat:

http://www.mrsmcgowan.com/projects/flags/states_books.htm#Texas  This page has books listed for every state (just scroll up or down)  This may be something we add as we study more.

http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/Instructor/Sep04_maya.htm  This link has great hands on projects for the Aztec/Mayan culture.  I am not sure which ones we are doing yet. 

http://www.michigan.gov/hal/0,1607,7-160-17451_18670_18793-53171--,00.html  This link has a project with growing corn. 

I will post more as I find them! 

Our goals for today will be:

Bible, 30 mins reading

Reading with Jacob

Reading from "The Corn Grows Ripe"

Art class 1pm.

Since it is the first day back, we will step in slowly.  There are still some more items we need to purchase, but until then, we will make do with what we have. 

I borrowed a couple of books from Janice Van Cleave (www.janicevancleave.com)  But I did not borrow her books but I borrowed some books on making little books.  These are a few things I want to add to our work. 

Once a month I would like to have an "open house." And let the children show off their work to Nana and Papa and maybe a few other people.  Plus my parents love my chicken fried steak!! 

After posting this, I am getting excited.  However it is almost 3am and I am still not any closer to going to sleep.  It is going to be a long night.

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• Sep. 1, 2006
We start school next Tuesday

I can't wait.  I think the children can though!  LOL  My goal for this year is to do more hands on.  I want to jump in with them and get our hands dirty.  Normally I am not very hands on.  Just throw it at them and go, but this year, I want more, not only for them, but myself.

I want them to expierence more.  Already we have begun art classes and soon there will be 4-H as well our continued involvement with Young Marines.  As our children are getting older, I want to really be sure I pay attention to their interests and promote these, as these are the doors that will open their futures. 

The difficutly with expanding our horizons is the cost!  And then of course multiplied by four!  Thankfully the Lord has truly blessed us with free or inexpensive resources. 

I look forward to posting our all endevors as the year begins.

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• Aug. 28, 2006
I bet you thought I disappeared

Well I bet you thought I disappeared!  But I haven't.  Life has been crazy!!

Right after my last post we discovered we had to move.  So move we did.  We now live on 11 acres on a lake.  Life is GRAND!!  The children love it out here.

We are starting back to school on the 4th.  I will begin posting once again all we do and cover!

Until then--just letting you know we are still alive and well!

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• Jun. 23, 2006
Another UGGGHHHH

We have started back visiting my father again, which has thrown a monkey wrench into our days.  And to top that off--my house was NASTY--so we took off the week to get it in ship shape!!

And now--we have to move--so we will be doing hit and miss it looks for the next few days.  I plan on doing some fun things to help ease the stress.

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• Jun. 15, 2006
AGGHHH

We will just pretend week #2 didn't happen...and when next week comes along--we will treat it as week #2.

Life has been crazy and mixed up--typical. 

Monday--Freddie called in Well (so we all enjoyed our day!)

Tuesday--we got penmanship, copy work and a spelling test in

Wednesday---Freddie came home Tuesday night with the "we are taking tomorrow off" mindset and we did.

Thursday--was planning on taking off because my house is a wreck.  While getting dressed I broke my toe and spent a lot of time with a foot in the air!

Friday--which is tomorrow--we are headed into Waco for the day--library, lunch and lake!

Try me again next week!

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• Jun. 13, 2006
Tuesday June 13, 2006

I am a mom who is dragging!!!

I was going to do school yesterday, but hubby took a surprise day off and I enjoyed the day being lazy. 

We started in again today!

We have done:

copy work

penmanship

and a really long spelling test.

They still have bible, sign language and some read alouds (history/social studies)  and science left. 

I am so tired today---we will be doing school in spurts!

I am going to keep this short, as it not very exciting!

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